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Investigators look for possible accomplices in radical circles. Fred from Noyelle / Getty Images

While a tribute is paid to Damien Ernest, Anthony Lancelot, Brice Le Mescam, and Aurélia Trifiro, the four victims of the attack at the Paris police headquarters, Thursday, October 3, the investigation continues to understand the profile of the terrorist Mickaël Harpon.

At the heart of the investigations, there is this high-capacity USB key containing both jihadist propaganda and the personal details of several colleagues of Mickaël Harpon. This key was found, not in the home of the attacker, but in the box of his office, at his place of work at the police headquarters.

At this point: it was impossible to say what use he intended to make of these files, nor for what reasons this propaganda and police contact details were involved. Mickaël Harpon was specialized in the collection of information including jihadist radicalization and this documentation was simply drawn from the servers of the Directorate of Intelligence, its service. It could then be limited to a purely professional aspect.

The USB stick that worries

The investigation is just beginning. The contents of this USB key are still in use. Now remains to know the nature of the personal data found, determine if it is for example a service directory or so, and it would be even more worrying if it is data collected on purpose by Mickaël Harpon .

This is a real question that agitates and worries the police sphere. In the tragic case of Magnanville, the investigations never made it possible to elucidate how the killer Larossi Abballa had been able to obtain the personal address of the police couple. In the case of Mickaël Harpon, the hypothesis that he could take advantage of his position to usurp confidential information about his colleagues is very real. He was empowered secret defense. And this fuels the fears and fears of all intelligence services. Because if ever this data leaked and if they fell we know not between which hands, then, it is the whole direction of the intelligence of the police prefecture, service specialized in the detection of the weak signals, which would be threatened and durably weakened .

The profile of the attacker

The investigations attempt to determine the degree of Islamist radicalization of Mickaël Harpon. Anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said Sunday that an internal report portrays a well-integrated 45-year-old man whose behavior, despite some signals, did not worry his superiors. Originally from Martinique he converted to Islam ten years ago, a memo indicates however that he did not pray at the office. On the other hand he would have had a sharp quarrel with a colleague after the attack against Charlie Hebdo , he would have said: " it is well done! Incident which the police institution was informed of, without any consequences.

It is also established that he was in contact with several individuals likely to belong to the Salafist movement. The investigators also question other aspects of this personality, the fact that he suffered from heavy hearing problems, a handicap that could have generated some frustrations. His wife, who was released without any charge against her, told the police unusual and agitated behavior of her husband the day before the killing, describing him as possessed.

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